Our dogs eat a lot of food, which means a lot of empty bags. Ever wondered about the impact those bags have on our landfills? A company called TerraCycle is helping pet parents and their dogs be green by giving them a simple way to recycle and upcycle their dog food bags.
Recycling Your Bags
When you enroll in the FREE recycling programs, you download and print a free shipping label online through your TerraCycle account. Then you simply collect your pet food bags (you can even put a box at your child’s school or your office to collect their bags too!) and then ship them back in whatever packaging you choose – though recycled is best, of course!
Wellness Pet Foods was the first pet food brand to partner with TerraCycle. The recycling program is free to consumers because it is funded by the businesses, such as Wellness Pet Foods, whose products and packaging have been approved for the recycling process.
Once TerraCycle gets your food bags, they’re washed, shredded and melted into hard plastic. The plastic pellets are used by the company’s manufacturing partners to make new recycled products. TerraCycle also upcycles the packaging into new products such as tote bags, pencil cases, dog collars etc. Many of these upcycled and recycled products are available to buy in major retailers around the world as well as online. To learn more about what happens to your packaging visit their website.
Finally, your recycling can earn you points. Upon signing up for a program, your collection location is automatically enrolled in TerraCycle’s Points Program. Any points you earn through recycling are automatically added to your account after TerraCycle receives your shipment. For the Wellness Program, pet parents can send back in their Wellness® TruFood® flexible plastic pet food packaging (and soon CORE and Complete Health packaging, too) to redeem TerraCycle points for a variety of charitable gifts, product bundles, or a payment of $0.01 per point to the non-profit organization or school of your choice.
DIY Upcycling Projects
You can also upcycle at home! Wellness Pet Foods has some adorable DIY projects that are super simple. The following are two projects the teams at Wellness Pet Foods and TerraCycle have shared with us.
Wellness Dog Cape
Materials:
- Wellness Dog Food Bag
- clear packing tape
- ¼” flat elastic
Tools:
- ruler
- scissors
- pen
Instructions:
- Start with a clean pet food bag, and cut the edges off.
- Use your rule to draw a trapezoid that is 6” wide at the bottom, 4” wide at the top, and 7.5” tall.
- Fold over the narrow end, about .75”
- Use a length of tape to keep the fold closed.
- Cut a 17.5” strip of elastic.
- Loop it through the fold on the cape.
- Tie and adjust accordingly so it fits your pet!
Design Tip: Cut the bottom in a funky pattern! Try a zig-zag or wavy shape!
Wellness Collapsible Dog Bowl
Materials:
- Wellness Pet Food Bag
- 4 velcro tabs
- clear tape
Tools:
- ruler
- pen or marker
- scissor
Instructions:
- Start with a clean pet food bag. Flatten out the package and measure the width. Measure and mark lines on both ends to make the length of the wrapper the same size as the width. A 10” square or smaller will probably work best. Cut along your marked lines.
- Mark a border 2” from the edge along each side of the square. Fold and crease firmly along this line. Unfold and flatten it.
- Fold up two sides at one corner of the square. Make a diagonal crease from the corner to the folded border creating an upright triangle. Repeat this for all corners, then unfold them.
- Take the Velcro tabs, unfasten them, and stick each one on either side of the corner of the square, one per triangle. Make sure that they will line up when fastened.
- Fold up the bowl at the corners and press the hook and loop fasteners together. You are ready to dish up your pet’s favorite snack in your new bowl!
